Wednesday, December 5, 2012

In
Nigeria, confraternities, a system of brotherhood modeled after American
fraternities, have taken a turn for the worst.

In the
United States, Greek letter organizations exist on college campuses. These
organizations operate as fraternities and sororities. They are a system of
brotherhood and sisterhood for college students with similar morals, ideals,
and interests.

Many of
these organizations have come under a high level of scrutiny in the past two
decades for hazing practices and violence against prospective members. These
practices and the shift in recruitment methods have not been confined to the
United States.

In the
early 1950s confraternities such as The National Association of Sea Dogs arose
in Nigeria. The NAS or Pyrates Confraternity, the first confraternity in the
country, began as a method of protecting the weak against the tribal wars
arising during that time. Seven men joined together to create the confraternity.
These men banded together on the Pyrates creed “against convention, against
tribalism, for humanistic ideals, and for comradeship and chivalry.”

“When it
started it was a positive thing for the university,” said Omolola Omoteso Famuyiwa, a
media specialist and public relations consultant from Nigeria.

“Now it
is just a terror on campus.”

In the
last 60 years, confraternities in Nigeria have evolved into cults. These cults
are no longer labeled as student organizations, and serve as a system of
intimidation of university students within the country.

Emmanuel
Nkansah, Editor-in-Chief of Sigma Emperor Magazine, was hesitant to speak
openly about cultism in Nigeria, saying the situation is as serious as the gang
violence and intimidation of the “crips and bloods,” in the United States and
other related gangs but “confined within the four corners of a university.”

Now,
rather than serving as a system of comradeship and chivalry protecting the weak
from tribal wars in the country, confraternities are now known as secret
societies and cults that provide a form of power for their members. From the 1990s
to the early 2000s cultism and violence led to the deaths of hundreds of
university students and community members.

Before
the 1990s, cult and gang violence was not common within the country, said Sam Oleka, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Interdisciplinary
Studies at Kentucky State University, who attended university in Nigeria in the
1970s.

“At that
time I don’t think across Africa there was any gang anything unless they were
fighting for independence,” said Oleka.

“Confraternities in Nigeria have over the years
become a group of violent and dangerous people who come together to promote
oppression and violence for selfish gains,” said Theodore Nyingifa, an editor
for Pulse, an online magazine.

In the last decade, cult violence has not been
as rampant as in the past. In the early 2000s, many cultists began renouncing
their membership as universities banned these organizations from their
campuses. “I don’t know if this has eliminated the practice,” said Omoteso, “I
think it may have made it more secretive.”

Upon entering a university many schools require
their students to sign a form stating that they will not join any cults.

Despite university attempts to crack down on
cultist violence in the schools, it still serves as a fear for parents in the
country. Obiora Nwajei, the proprietor of the Karis primary school in Nigeria,
stated that he was not comfortable sending his daughter to university in
Nigeria.

“When cultism crept into universities, people
lost their freedom,” said Nwajei.

Becoming a member of a cult is an intricate
process as these societies are meant to be kept in secret. Some students are
targeted by the organizations to join.

Cult members target students for different
reasons, “If you have money they will want to target you, to get what you
have,” said Jide Oshin, an Ohio University student studying engineering and
biology. Other students are targeted because of their intelligence, their
strength or even in some cases their weakness.

Once targeted it is very difficult to decline
membership into the cult.

“They won’t just let you go,” said Omoteso
“because now you know that they are a member."

Other students seek out membership in a cult to
serve as protection from other cults or individuals.

Tolu Adeusi, a consultant with
TG March Nata Education, says that many students
who went to public schools feel like they do not fit in at universities, many
of these students seek membership in such organizations to feel part of the
community.

Oshin has three cousins who recently joined
cults while attending universities in Nigeria.

“I think they joined because they wanted to be
the big boys on campus,” said Oshin. “If you are a member people fear you and
respect you.”

Once chosen, an initiation process occurs where
prospective members are asked to complete tasks including violence, blood
rituals, and the learning of information about the specific cult.

“Someone I know had to go beat someone up,”
said Oshin, “a few others had to get a snake’s head for some type of witchcraft.”

Some students continue cultist activities after
graduating from university. “The job market is very stagnant,” said Awele
Nwankwo, a student from Plateau State Polytechnic University in Nigeria who studied international relations in hopes of leaving the country to do his work.

Those who do not find jobs are often “called up
by politicians as body guards” said Nwajei.

“They engage in meaningless gang wars, rob
people, oppress fellow citizens, and in most cases get hired by wealthy
politicians to carry out their dirty jobs,” said Nyingifa,

This system of brotherhood, and recently
sisterhood, in Nigeria has changed the way students learn at universities.
Though cultism still exists within the country, the media rarely acknowledges
it.

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